Pathfinder Ponies

by terrycloth

Whirlwind Assault

The adventurers set out on their escort mission at dawn – there was talk of going under cover of night, but Applejack pointed out that the goblins among the bandits could see in the dark, unlike most of the party, and that the coal train would be extremely hard to make stealthy, especially once it was on fire. At least during the day, everypony would be clearly visible from miles off – there was nothing to hide behind, and both the bandits and the caravan would leave a huge cloud of salty dust in their wake, impossible to miss.

They were two hours out from the Black River mine, still heading south towards the tiny inn where the trail branched west towards the pass, when the telltale cloud of approaching bandits appeared to the east. There was no question of trying to outrun them – the six gigantic wagonloads of coal were pulled by teams of four gem ponies each, but were still very slow.

“We should prepare for a fight,” Twilight said. “They’ll be on us in less than a minute. Hopefully, they’ll back off when they see that we’re here guarding the caravan, but if they do try to attack we need to make sure that they regret it.”

“And that we don’t die,” Pinkie Pie added. “Most of our spells are defensive.”

“Ah think ‘not dying’ is part of what they’d regret,” Applejack said. “Takin’ us out would probably make ‘em mighty happy.”

The party cast their defensive spells, and indeed it was only minutes before the enemy got close enough to start taking extreme-range potshots at the caravan with their fire arrows. Even at extreme range, their shots had a good chance of hitting the massive wagons, and four of the six were set on fire in the first volley.

Twilight grabbed her ‘fire extinguishing’ rod, and summoned a Sleet Storm over the nearest wagon. “Everypony, hit the wagons with the extinguishers! Even the ones that aren’t on fire! They can’t set them on fire if they’re already frozen. Gem ponies – stop the wagons and take cover behind them! I don’t want them taking you out as a backup plan.”

Rainbow Dash, not having an extinguisher due to being far too small to carry one, immediately headed for the distant bandits, flying as fast as she could.

“Oh no,” Fluttershy said, and started to cast a spell to summon some Air Elementals to support her.

Pinkie Pie and Applejack also raced off after the angry songbird. “Sorry, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie said. “But we can’t just let her run off and get killed!”

Macintosh and Rarity, at least, extinguished two more of the flaming wagons.

The next volley from the bandits set the last two wagons on fire, and sure enough there were a few arrows aimed at the gem ponies pulling them, although from extreme range none of them even came close to hitting. Still, that convinced the last of them to hurriedly dislodge themselves from their harnesses and hide out of sight.

The three ponies on extinguisher duty engulfed the rest of the wagons, hopefully before any of them had time to catch fire properly since they wouldn’t be able to tell through the sleet. Fluttershy finished casting her spell, although it only managed to summon a single elemental.

Twilight frowned. “You might want to tell it to pace the rest of the party. If gets there by itself it’ll just get torn to bits before it can accomplish anything.”

“Actually, if it’s okay with you, I wanted it to get there first?” Fluttershy said. “If it turns into a whirlwind, it can lift the bandits up into the air and drop them. I don’t think any of them could fly…”

“Wait, that tiny thing can lift and carry ponies?” Twilight asked.

“A small elemental makes a small whirlwind,” Rarity explained, saying a few words to the elemental, which demonstrated by forming a swirling cone of salt, twenty feet high. “But even a small whirlwind is large enough to lift a clumsy or unlucky target into the air.”

“Or a willing target…” Twilight said thoughtfully. “I think I know how we can get to the bandits. Fluttershy, keep summoning them and sending them out there – we’ll go with the… the third wave. That should get us there around the same time as Rainbow Dash makes her attack.”

“Oh dear,” Fluttershy said. “It’s going to be a bumpy ride… I don’t think they can carry anypony without hurting them.” She began to cast as Rarity gave the first elemental its instructions in Auran.

“We can take it,” Twilight said confidently. “You have to come. If those bandits brought their leaders along with them, we’re going to need you there to heal us,” she added. “Rarity and Macintosh can stay behind to guard the wagons, in case they have a second wave.”

“But mostly, we’ll just be keeping the wagons extinguished, I imagine,” Rarity said with a frown.

“If you want to come, I’m not going to stop you,” Twilight said. “You were critical to our success the last time we encountered these guys.”

By then, the bandits had noticed the oncoming adventurers, and switched their arrows to target Applejack and Pinkie Pie – but the range was still too great for them to hit a moving target except by luck, and luck was not with them. Fluttershy’s second wave of elementals was larger – three of the ‘small’ 20-foot whirlwinds sped off towards the distant bandits.

As the first air elemental rapidly approached, the bandits seemed to notice that the danger from it was more imminent than they’d thought – apparently, they had orders not to engage the adventurers, as they immediately turned to flee at top speed, the archers firing inaccurate flaming arrows from the backs of their mounts as the elemental closed in – only two of the arrows hit, but between the impact and the flames, that was enough to disperse the whirlwind before it reached them.

“Should we turn back?” Applejack asked, keeping pace with Pinkie and Rainbow Dash. “Looks like we ran ‘em off.”

Rainbow chirped angrily, and attempted, without much success, to fly even faster.

“Guess that’s a ‘no’. Their mounts’re wearing heavy enough armor that we should catch ‘em eventually, although we’ll have to wade through a whole hail ‘o them arrows before we do.” She frowned at the thought, but didn’t turn back.

Back at the wagons, Twilight frowned. “Rainbow Dash isn’t turning back, so the attack’s still on. Come on, everypony who’s going – get ready. This next wave is our ride.”

Fluttershy summoned another three elementals, and after a quick explanation from Rarity, each of them picked up one of the adventurers and lifted them into the air, then dashed off after the fleeing bandits.

It was a very bumpy ride.

With a wave of three elementals closing in, the goblin archers only managed to take out one of them before the other two slammed into their lines, each of them swerving to run down the entire line of fleeing bandits, trying to lift all of them up. Four of the goblin-pony pairs were sucked up by the first elemental, one of the goblins also being dragged from his saddle… one of the remaining unicorn mounts was nabbed by the second elemental. The last lucky bandit remained free.

Unfortunately for the original plan to drop them from a great height, the bandits were able to strike back at the elementals from within the whirlwind before they rose at all. The goblins had no real melee attacks and were essentially helpless, but the unicorns flailed about with their greatswords, and quickly destroyed the first elemental, which had been full to bursting, leaving the four ponies and their riders sprawled out on the ground, delayed but no longer captured.

The second elemental survived the attacks of the lone pair it had acquired, and managed to scoop up three more sets of archers and riders – minus the rider who’d been torn from his saddle, who managed to dive to the side and avoid it – and lifted them up eighty feet in the air before dropping them. None of the four unicorns who were caught survived the fall, their bodies splattering like flies caught in a swatter, the red of their blood staining the salt under their broken corpses. The goblins were a little tougher, and for the most part managed to land on their erstwhile allies, and while they did not escape unharmed, none of them were killed. Of course, without mounts, they now had no way to escape.

Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy, in their own elemental ‘mounts’, rushed towards the bandits, and at Rarity’s shouted suggestion, attempted to pick up the rest of the party in passing.

“Woah, nelly!” Applejack said, staring at the splattered ponies and dodging aside as the whirlwind swept past.

“Don’t be a chicken!” Pinkie Pie shouted, laughing as she flew willingly into the swirling winds. Rainbow Dash likewise allowed herself to be picked up. For them, it was a short flight – only two or three seconds – before they were deposited right on top of the remaining enemies.

Twilight and Rarity, not having wings, went sprawling helplessly across the sand when they were dropped at high speed, but the others could disengage safely and act.

“Stop!” Fluttershy shouted at the surviving unicorn who was close enough for her to effect, and he froze, staring into her eyes, as the goblin on his back frantically kicked him in the sides and urged him on.

“What’s wrong with you, Branchsnap? We need to get out of here! The boss said not to try to fight them!”

A possible reason why their boss might have said that came in the form of one of Pinkie’s bombs, which exploded over them, burning them horribly and leaving a slippery patch of greasy salt under Branchsnap’s hooves, dropping him to the ground with his rider pinned beneath him.

Rainbow Dash dove at one of the injured goblins, but even sprawled out on the ground the nimble creature managed to evade her beak.

The goblins scrambled to their feet and recovered their bows. “Focus on the pegasus!” one of them shouted, pointing his bow at Pinkie Pie. Two arrows from the scattered volley hit her, sinking deep into her side and scorching her coat. She hissed in pain, but didn’t go down.

Branchsnap’s rider, pinned beneath him, beat on the unicorn’s sides to try to get him to move, but he was still pinned in turn by Fluttershy’s command.

Rarity chirped something to the remaining elementals, and all four of them shot off after the one fleeing unicorn and rider who hadn’t been delayed. After being battered by multiple whirlwinds, one finally managed to lift them off their feet.

While they were doing that, Rarity herself adjusted her position to line up her spell, and then blew a hooffull of diamond shards at two of the wounded goblins. One tried to take cover behind the corpse of his mount, but was still cut to pieces by the swarm of tiny glass shards; the other goblin was caught completely by surprise, and the pieces of his remains were sprayed in a ten foot cone past where the blast had hit him.

Twilight charged the least-wounded goblin, the one who’d been pulled from his unfortunate mount’s saddle by the first elemental, and then evaded the whirlwind that lifted his friends up to their doom. His luck had run out. Her hammer hit him perfectly under his chin, and his head went flying across the salt flats like a hoofball, landing fifty feet away and rolling another twenty, while his headless body slumped to the ground at her hooves.

Rainbow Dash was a little less dramatic about taking down her target, who’d rudely ignored her in favor of shooting at Pinkie Pie, but a beak to the base of his skull put him down, just the same.

“Stay!” Fluttershy snapped, continuing to hold Branchsnap helpless in her gaze. All he could do was whimper, as Pinkie Pie doused him again in flame, this time aiming mostly for the pinned rider, since their arrows seemed the more dangerous weapon.

In the distance, there was a pair of faint screams as the other surviving archer/rider pair failed to escape from the whirlwind, and were lifted a full hundred feet into the air and dropped. The screams cut off suddenly as they hit the ground, and they did not get up afterwards.

“Surrender!” Twilight ordered the last pair, her giant hammer held threateningly overhead as she trotted over to where the goblin squirmed helplessly under the paralyzed pony.

“We surrender! We surrender!” the goblin squealed.

“You know we can’t take them prisoner,” Rarity said.

“I know,” Twilight replied, her hammer dropping and shattering the goblin’s skull. “And I was talking to the unicorn,” she added to the twitching corpse. “Branchsnap, was it?”

“I surrender too,” he said, curling up in a ball as Fluttershy released him. His horn lit up to lift his sword and toss it away from himself.

Twilight smiled, and rested her blood-soaked hammer on the ground. She leaned down to the cowering bandit. “I want you to take a message to your boss. You can stop attacking the mine – the Armory is sealed away again, and guarded by a lich. The gem ponies are stupid enough to consider the problem resolved, but neither you nor they are getting to those ancient weapons any time soon. Do you understand?”

“I understand,” he said, shivering. “Please don’t kill me.”

“I’m not going to kill you,” Twilight said. “But I’m afraid I do have to make sure that you can’t ply your trade as a bandit any time soon.”

“Are you going to break off his horn?” Pinkie Pie asked, grinning. “I bet I could make something magical with a unicorn horn.”

“No, he keeps his horn. His magic is pathetic, but it’ll let him write out the message when he gets back to his camp,” Twilight said. “I’m breaking his jaw so he can’t wield his sword.”

“What?” Branchsnap asked, “No – dongggrrllgllll…” He squirmed and struggled as Twilight’s magic closed around his jaw, and as she narrowed her gaze and her horn blazed brighter, there were a series of sick snaps, crackles and pops as it was dislocated, shattered, and twisted until his entire muzzle was a bloody ruin.

Twilight turned her back on the grisly sight. “Pinkie Pie – take their ears for proof we defeated another dozen bandits. Rarity – eat your fill. We’re heading into civilized territory, so it might be a while before we have any more corpses for you. Fluttershy –“ she paused, then patted the quivering Flutterpony on the shoulder, and gave her a wide, friendly smile. “Good work.”

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Damn. This chapter got dark in a hurry. Still, that's the fun of moral neutrality. You get to dabble in less savory tactics from time to time. Still, yikes. That's some cold calculus right there.

Also, grease bombs are, in fact, a thing. I hadn't realized that until now. Neat!

So, that's a definite victory for the party, though a messy one. This will certainly restore some of their credibility, but I get the feeling they've paid a steeper cost than they realize, at least in terms of reputation. Looking forward to more.

[terrycloth]

5449413 Reputation with who? The only ones who saw are themselves and the bandit. Of course, they're letting the bandit loose to tell his story, and the place he's most likely to tell it (aside from 'to other bandits') is the already not-entirely loyal unicorn city. I guess Twilight should probably care about ever being able to face her family again.

[FanOfMostEverything]

5456271
Oh. Heh. Point.

[albedoequals1]

Although this is supposed to be the characters roleplaying, it's hard to picture Fluttershy playing her character so callous. (Still less callous than the others, but she has frequently recommended killing someone) Applejack as a career liar is also a weird image. Twilight, on the other hand, I can totally see playing a character like this. Without any real-world consequences, she can go for cold, cruel logic in every case. Rarity is playing a somewhat horrifying character, but she has a good imagination and sense of drama, so it's not much of a stretch. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are basically playing themselves.